Serica Energy Completes Acquistion of Interest in Erskine Field
Monday 8 June 2015
Serica has completed the transaction with BP to acquire an 18% interest in the producing Erskine field lying to the south of Columbus, with the effective date of 1 January 2014.
The Erskine field has strong synergies with Columbus, being a gas and gas condensate stream which uses the Lomond platform as export facility, one of the planned alternative export routes for Columbus production. The transaction brings an estimated 3.6 mmboe of producing reserves to Serica (estimated by Serica as at 1 January 2014), complements Serica's efforts to bring the Columbus field into production and adds materially to Serica's interests in the Central North Sea area.
The field, operated by Chevron, is a High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) gas condensate field and was originally discovered in 1981. Main reserves lie in three separate, but generally overlying, Jurassic sandstone-producing horizons. The field has been developed with five producing wells capable of delivering, net to Serica's interest, between 3,000 boepd and 4,000 boepd subject to downstream infrastructure efficiencies.
The production facilities comprise a normally unmanned platform located at Erskine with production handled and controlled from the Lomond platform operated by BG 30 km to the north. The Lomond Platform lies 269 km east of Aberdeen, adjacent to the Columbus field. Gas and liquids produced from Erskine are transported to the Lomond platform by a 16in nominal bore multiphase pipeline where the fluids are processed, with gas then transported via the CATS pipeline, and liquids via the Forties Pipeline System.